


Line Dancing

by BridgetteIrish



Series: Susan Vasquez Needs Love Too [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fix-it fic, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:50:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9947750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BridgetteIrish/pseuds/BridgetteIrish
Summary: Susan Vasquez notices Kara looks a little blue and decides to cheer her up.





	

**Author's Note:**

> An enormous thanks to reginalovesemma for the endless edits, assistance with rewrites and help with direction.  
> Here's to the launch of a new ship.  
> *smashes champagne on the bow*

Kara was happy.  She absolutely was.  Alex was happy so Kara was happy.  Happy was expected of her.  It was her default, her home base, her factory reset.  But if Kara was happy, why did it feel like Fort Rozz was sitting on her chest.

She sipped on her club soda and listened to the click of the pool balls, the easy flirting banter between Alex and Maggie and the casual chatter from the table behind her.  All of it served to remind her of how alone she was.  Today was important.  It had never been easy for her to celebrate the day she’d landed on Earth.  It had felt like being congratulated for surviving the destruction of her planet and the loss of her family.  But once Alex had started incorporating cupcakes, it gave her something to look forward to and she felt less alone.  Until today.  Today, she had officially lived on Earth longer than she had lived on Krypton.  Her heart felt heavy, her powers felt dull and cumbersome.  She missed her mother so much she thought her heart might melt right into her feet.  The sobs sat at the back of her throat, threatening at any moment to escape.  She took another sip and swallowed them down.

This was okay.  Alex was happy.  She had a girlfriend now, someone to take her to concerts, which Kara couldn’t go to because the sound overwhelmed her hearing.  Someone who could play all the games Kara couldn’t play, because she would shatter the pool balls or break the bowling pins or throw darts straight through the wall.  Maggie could fill in all the blank spaces in Alex’s heart.  So why did Kara feel so empty?

She pulled the line dancing brochure from her back pocket and studied it, giving herself a few minutes to mourn her plans for the night.  The anger came unannounced and white-hot.  She clenched her jaw and let the tears well in her eyes.  The glossy paper crumpled in her fist.

A gentle hand closed over her clenched fingers, accompanied by a quiet word.  “Don’t.”

Kara whipped her head around and met the chocolate brown eyes of Susan Vasquez.  Her fist squeezed harder, causing more damage to the brochure nestled there.

“Susan.  Uh, hi?”

“Why so blue?”  Her gentle fingers pried the crumpled paper from Kara’s hand, leaving half of it behind.  Kara let go of the torn half and swallowed more tears as Vasquez placed the two together on top of the bar, smoothing them out.

“I’m not.  I’m not blue.  I’m wearing blue, obviously, but I’m not feeling blue.”

Vasquez smiled and leaned against the bar, taking a sip of her drink.  “Do you know you get a little crinkle in your forehead when you’re trying to convince yourself of something?”

Kara ducked her head and her hand went to the telltale crinkle in her forehead.  “Dammit.”

Susan pulled Kara’s hand from her face.  “Stop.  It’s cute.”

Kara rolled her eyes.  “Great.  That’s me.  Kara Danvers.  Cute and blue.”  The tears were close to the surface again and Susan was close at her shoulder and the moment she poured her entire sad night out to the woman at her side was so very close.

Susan’s face softened and she caught Mon-el’s eyes.  “A root beer for me and another club soda for the lady,” she ordered smoothly, making Kara giggle and blush.  

“Just root beer?” Kara fished.

“I have graveyard.  The trade-off for my transfer downtown.”  She shrugged.  “No drinking on the job, so my usual gin and tonic will have to wait a few days.”  Mon-el slid their drinks across the bar and Susan took a seat.  “Seriously, Kara.  Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s… sort of my birthday.”

“Sort of?”

Kara leaned her elbows on the bar and turned her face so she could look at Vasquez.  They’re eyes met and Kara was struck by the warmth and kindness she found there.  They twinkled with a hint of mischief and the trace of danger that gave her away as a secret badass smoldered underneath it all.  This was the kind of woman girls confided in, and Kara was no exception.

“It’s my… Earth birthday.  The day I landed.  Kinda weird to celebrate it, I know, but it’s become tradition.”

“Happy Birthday, Supergirl.” Vasquez was relieved to no longer have to skirt the issue.  Everyone at the DEO knew who Alex’s sunny sister was and to have Kara herself breach the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ protocol was a damned relief.

“Thanks.”  Kara smiled and blushed.  “Anyway, Alex and I always celebrate together and she… has other plans.”  Kara waved her hand dismissively.  “It’s fine.  I’m happy for her, but I may have gone a little overboard planning our night and now I’m just…”  She sipped her club soda.  “It’s cool.  I’m gonna catch up on some reading, eat a pint of ice cream, maybe fly over Vegas.”

“Or,” Susan picked up the destroyed brochure off the bar and held it in front of Kara’s face.  “I could take you line dancing and show you how it’s really done.” The smile that spread across her face filled in a couple of those empty spaces Kara had been lamenting only minutes ago.  Susan leaned closer so their shoulders brushed.  “We wouldn’t even need lessons.”

Kara cocked her head to the side and looked so much like a puppy that Vasquez couldn’t resist getting a little closer and placing a hand on Kara’s forearm.  “I grew up in Texas.  If I can’t teach a California white girl the Boot Scootin’ Boogie in twenty minutes or less, they’ll revoke my shitkickers and my 30-06.”

Kara was a little bit awed and a little bit smitten by Susan’s easy confidence.  “I don’t know what any of those words are,” she breathed, “but don’t you have to work?”

Susan shook her watch out of her sleeve and squinted at it in the dim light.  “It’s 6:30.  With your ability to circumvent traffic, we can be at Ollie’s by seven, and back to the DEO in time for my 9:00 shift.  That’ll even give me time to teach you to two-step,” she promised with a cheeky wink.

Kara licked her lips and tried to gather her thoughts.  She had no reason to say no.  She reached back for the hurt and anger she had felt at Alex’s abandonment.  It was all but absent.  Susan Vasquez had swept it away with a word and a touch.

Kara grinned.  “Lead the way, ma’am.”

 

+++++++++++++

 

Ollie’s was a country bar only in that it was decorated in fake cattle horns, ropes, and dark, distressed wood and in that it played country music.  The clientele was a mixture of young and old, earnest and ironic.  There were the hipster millenials, watching the line dancing with snooty aloofness and low-key jealousy, secretly wishing they could bypass their friends’ disdain and join in.  They would join, of course, once they had consumed enough trendy microbrew to start daring each other to try it.  There was a smattering of first-daters joining in the dance lessons and sharing awkward giggles as stubbled men got brownie points for choosing something other than a martini bar and an art film.  And there was the occasional elderly couple in bolo ties, denim skirts and steam-shaped stetsons.  They circled the dance floor in pairs, doing some sort of bouncy, shuffle.

Vasquez breathed in dramatically.  “Ah, smells like beer and stubbornness, just like home.  Drink?”

Kara was staring around, taking in the wagon wheel balcony and rustic, beamed ceiling.  “Uh, allow me,” she smiled at Vasquez.  “It’s the least I can do for teaching me to dance, right?”  An awkward giggle escaped and she turned to the bar.

“A root beer and a club soda, please.”

The bartender, a redhead in a ribbed tanktop and frayed Wranglers, gave Kara a heated look and got to work.  “You’re awful buttoned up for dancing, sweetie, gonna let that hair down tonight?”

“Um, I just… Uh…” Kara stuttered helplessly.

A firm arm came around Kara’s waist from behind.  “Down girl,” Vasquez chuckled.  “Kara, meet Lily, Lily, Kara.  Don’t listen to Lily, Danvers, she’ll eat you alive if given half a chance.”

“Not if you get there first, Susie.” Lily plunked their drinks on the bar and turned to take her next order.

“Take a sip.  Time to dance.”  Kara took a pull on her club soda before she set it hastily on the bar and let herself be drug to the dance floor.

They line danced with the brave and tipsy until they were both out of breath.  Susan patiently showed her the steps, how to turn, how to stick with the rest of the group.  Then, when Kara was no longer counting out loud and had relaxed a little, Vasquez started showing off a bit, flourishing and spinning, while Kara stuck to the basics.  

“Stop!  Susan! You’re messing me up!” Kara tried to sound angry, but her warm, happy laugh belied her and she clung to Susan’s shirtsleeve and tried to keep up.  

When the line dancing became too crowded and Kara was in danger of stepping on toes, Susan pulled her to the side, placed one strong hand on the dip of Kara’s waist and guided Kara’s arm to her shoulder with the other.  Then she lifted Kara’s free hand into her own.  Susan’s hands were surprisingly soft, like silk wrapped in steel.  Her fingers were warm and she gave Kara’s waist a tiny squeeze before stepping closer and meeting Kara’s sparkling eyes.  “Step backward with your right foot first.  Then with your left.  It goes ‘slow..slow..quick quick, slow..slow..quick quick’.  Follow me.”  The two-step took a bit longer for Kara to master.  She wasn’t used to being led.  But as her muscle memory took over the rhythm and her arms relaxed around Susan’s neck enough for them to dance a bit closer, she let herself enjoy it.  Susan smelled like sandalwood and clean cotton and Kara liked the way the tiny lock of hair dropped across her forehead now that her hair product had given up the ghost.

When Susan felt Kara relax, she stopped them for a moment and came around to Kara’s back.  Her hand landed back on Kara’s slender waist and she took a slightly trembling hand in her own again.  She let her chin drop on a slim shoulder from behind, breath ghosting across the shell of Kara’s ear.  “Same thing, okay?  Just step forward and let me lead.  Slow..slow..quick quick.” They started again.  “That’s it,” Susan encouraged gently, causing a pleasant shiver down Kara’s spine.

Kara giggled and pressed her temple against Vasquez’s forehead.

Both of their phones rang at once.

They separated on instinct and barely avoided being run into by other dancing couples.  

“Alex?”

“Sir?”

They spoke at once and made eye contact, already making their way towards the door.

Susan tossed a twenty on the bar for Lily and mouthed “Keep it” with her phone pressed to her ear.  “Yes, sir.  On my way, sir.”

“Sure, Alex, whatever you want.  What about Maggie?” She tried to keep the hope out of her voice and held in the disappointment when Alex replied that she’d be meeting her at the concert.  “I’ll meet you at the DEO.  It’s closer than my apartment.”

Susan had already hung up and was holding the door for her as they left Ollie’s and emerged into the cool National City night.

“Agent Stewart’s wife went into labor.  Henshaw needs me early.  I’m sorry, Kara.  I have to go to work.”

Kara smiled and squeezed her shoulder.  “Alex wants to talk.  We’re meeting at the DEO.  I’ll fly you.”

Susan’s eyes sparkled with warmth and a bit of disappointment at cutting their night short.  “We’ll do it again some time,” she promised.

Kara stepped closer under the pretense of preparing to lift them off, but the proximity made her breath catch a bit.  A becoming flush stained her cheeks and she pressed her lips together before she spoke.  “I’d really like that.”

Kara changed in the blink of an eye and Supergirl stood before Susan almost as if conjured by magic.  “Up Up and Away Agent Vasquez.”

 

+++++++++++++++

 

Several hours later, as Alex rushed off to call Maggie, Susan sauntered up behind Kara.  “She’ll always be your sister, Kara, even if you feel things changing.”

Kara sighed.  “Oh I know.  I’m really happy for her.”  Kara turned to meet Susan’s eyes.  “Am I the most selfish person you’ve ever met?”

“Well, not the  _ most _ .” Susan smirked.  “You met Lily tonight.  You don’t hold a candle to her.”

Kara let the joke wash over her and laughed.

“So, Director Henshaw’s given me the rest of the night off.  He called in Patterson.  Says Martian roulette is enough for one night.”  She checked her watch and couldn’t resist scuffing the floor with her boot and shoving her hands in her pockets.  She looked adorably unsure and Kara’s heart thumped warmly in her chest.  “Ollie’s is open for another hour.  Care to give that two-step another try?”

Kara shrugged.  “I kicked some serious Martian ass tonight.  I’m pretty tired.  You up for some Netflix and chill at my place?”

Susan’s eyes went impossibly wide and her jaw dropped.  She was speechless.

“What?” Kara looked behind her for whatever had startled Vasquez.  “What’s wrong?”

“Uh, Kara?  You do know what Netflix and Chill means, right?”

Kara furrowed her eyebrows and that fetching crinkle appeared on her forehead.  “Well, yeah.  I have to catch up on Stranger Things and I have, like,  _ so much _ ice cream.  Whatever flavor you want.”

Vasquez doubled over in laughter and snaked her arm through Kara’s.  “That sounds awesome, Danvers, but next time, just call it, Netflix and ice cream.  When we get to your place, I’ll introduce you to Urban Dictionary.”

“Um, okay.”

She laughed again and followed Kara to the balcony.

 

++++++++++++++++++++

 

Susan looked across the couch at Kara, who was curled against the corner, clutching a pillow and looking for all the world like she might laser-eye the tv screen before the episode ended.  Her blue eyes were flashing in the dim lamplight and she was worrying at her lip with her teeth.  Susan hoped she was imagining the slight tremble in Kara’s hands as she squeezed the pillow harder.

Susan dared to speak up.  “Kara?”

Kara jumped so violently, the entire couch shifted.  “Oh.  Susan.  Sorry.  You scared me.  Guess I was… was… just really into it.  This show is… so good, right?”

She was terrified and Susan tried not to be charmed.  She gave Kara a gentle smile and slid a little closer, like a zookeeper approaching a nervous animal.  “Why do you watch this if it scares you so much?”

Kara sighed, disappointed at being caught out, but a bit relieved that maybe she could drop the pretense of enthusiasm for once.  “Everyone goes on and on about it, at CatCo, at the DEO.”  she shrugged.  “I guess I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.”  Kara turned her eyes on Vasquez.  “Besides, I know you like it.  I’ve heard you and Alex geek out about it.”

Vasquez’s heart gave an affectionate thump.  It was getting more and more difficult to resist this strong, pretty, sweet girl who just wanted to be loved.  “I have Netflix too, Kara.  I can watch this anytime.”  She scooted even closer and reached out to Kara, choosing to rescue the pillow rather than take her hand like she really wanted.  “Let’s let the pillow live,” she said with a coy smile, setting it on the coffee table beside them, “and turn on something you actually want to watch.”

Kara blushed.  “I’ve been meaning to start A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

Susan grinned.  “Alex says that little girl looks just like you did as a kid.”

Kara rolled her eyes and reached for the remote.  Without moving away, Susan turned back to the screen as Kara found what she was looking for.  As the opening credits rolled, Susan felt eyes on her and turned back to Kara.  Sharp blue met soft brown again and Vasquez suddenly feared the perceptiveness she spotted behind Kara’s eyes.  She smiled shyly and focused back on the screen when it suddenly came to a stop.  Kara had hit pause.

“Why did you approach me?”

Susan furrowed her eyebrows, confused.

“Tonight, in the bar, why did you come talk to me?”

Susan had no choice but to answer honestly.  “I watched Alex blow you off, saw that look of disappointment on your face.  I wanted to cheer you up.”

Kara nodded.  “Pity, then.”

Vasquez shook her head in frustration.  “No, Kara.  Not pity.  Concern? Care?”  She dove in.  “Honestly, I didn’t like the look Mon-El was throwing your way when he saw how sad you were and… I like it better when you smile.”

Kara blushed.  “You sound almost jealous.”

Susan had no reason to lie anymore.  “I am.  I’m usually jealous of him.  I’d be jealous of anyone who got to spend that much time with you.”

“Susan, that doesn’t make sense.  You barely know me.”

Susan took a deep breath.  This was not going the way she’d imagined so many times.  “I know you better than you think, Kara Danvers.”  She risked a soft brush of fingertips at Kara’s forehead, moving a lock of hair away from those startling blue eyes.  Her head was screaming at her to diffuse the tension, her heart crying out to close the distance.  Her next words came out on a hasty breath.  “And now that I know what a terrible dancer you are, I have a mission.”  She smiled.  “And a DEO agent with a mission… well…”  Her flirting was cut short when Kara shifted closer so their knees pressed together as they faced each other on the sofa.  There was only a hair’s breadth between them.  “Kara, I-”

She could taste the chocolate on Kara’s breath, even though their lips hadn’t met yet.

The knock on the door sent them flying apart like opposing magnets.

Kara squinted through her apartment door to see Alex on the other side with a birthday cupcake.

She turned back to Susan.  “Alex,” she whispered.

It was enough for lovelorn, soft Susan to disappear and tough, stoic Vasquez to take her place.  She stood and began clearing the coffee table of ice cream cartons while Kara answered the door.

Alex was surprised to see her there, but gave her a friendly smile anyway.  “Vasquez?”

“Danvers,” she greeted back.  “Kara and I were just unwinding from the crazy night.  Feeling better?”

“Much,” she said.  “Thanks for keeping her company.”

“Anytime.”  Vasquez couldn’t hold in the little sigh that escaped at that sentiment.  She gave Kara a meaningful look as she slipped past them to Kara’s door.  “Thanks for the ice cream, Kara.  Don’t watch anymore scary shows, okay?”

Kara smiled and nodded, unable to make eye contact.  “Bye,” she breathed.

As the door swung shut behind Vasquez, Alex held up the cupcake.  “I’m sorry about tonight, Kara.  I’m glad you found a friend.”

“Yeah, me too.”  Kara pressed her lips together in thought.  “Could you… hold on a sec?” she asked her sister hastily.  “Just stay right there.  I’ll be right back.”  She rushed out the door, leaving a confused Alex holding a burning cupcake in her dining room.

 

+++++++++++

 

“Susan!” she caught her at the door to the stairwell. 

Susan stopped in her tracks, turning at the sound of her name, and found her arms suddenly full of Kara Danvers.  As steel arms wrapped around her shoulders, Susan stumbled a bit before snaking her hands around Kara’s waist for stability.  Kara let out a relieved little giggle and Susan felt a small breath tickle her neck, sending a wave of heat straight through her, and she shivered a bit in Kara’s arms. 

The warmth Kara felt when Susan’s arms came around her reminded her of the morning sunlight after a rainy day.  Full and real and bright.  She gave herself a moment to bask in that feeling, to laugh at the relief that washed over her, to bury her face in Susan’s neck and breathe in that sandalwood and cotton again.  

When Kara pulled away, Susan allowed her hands to squeeze the shirt at Kara’s waist, just once before stepping back.  She cupped Kara’s face with a shaking hand.  “What was that for?”

“We got interrupted,” Kara stated, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, “just like earlier.”  Kara gathered her courage on a deep breath.  “Take me dancing this weekend,” she blurted, “so we can finish that too.”  She looked very proud of herself and her sunny smile warmed Susan again.

“You bet,” Susan grinned.  She found Kara’s hand with her own, planted a sweet kiss on her knuckles and disappeared down the stairs.

 

+++++++++++

 

“You okay?” Alex asked as Kara slipped back into her apartment.

“Yeah.”  Kara waved her hand in dismissal.  “Yeah, just needed to remind Vasquez of something.”  She made grabby-hands at her still-burning cupcake and Alex smiled.

“Happy Earth Birthday, Kara.  Blow.  Gently.”

Kara closed her eyes, made a wish, and blew.


End file.
